The first step is to have a plan; sounds simple? Of course, any decent manager will have a plan usually consisting of early wins, delivering functional goals and proving that they were the right choice.

Great leaders understand they are in it for the long haul and building a team requires the same due diligence as delivering KPI’s or OKRs.

Enabling the team to learn who is on their team.

Your Plan needs to have these core team building elements:
Building trust amongst the members of your team starts with learning the value of each person. Each member of your team needs to discover who they are working alongside, how each of their colleagues thinks, what they value, what they worry about and what skills and talent they bring.

Previous leaders may not have given these people this opportunity, and so many people adopt the mantra, “not everyone can be a friend at work, so put your head down, do your job and take your money.” Helping your team value each other is the foundation of a high-performance team. Teams who work for each other are unstoppable.

Creating a safe space.

Fear is a culture killer. It is an insidious slow death that is only visible in the final stages, its cost can be measured in the billions, but more importantly, it costs people their dignity, creativity and spirit.

Even the most well-intentioned managers can fall prey of this trap.

Great leaders know that creating a safe space is their No.1 priority and they have learned from watching exemplars that constant vigilance is critically important, even the best teams can go bad.

A safe space is created through the negotiation of values, boundaries and expectations. People will make mistakes. They will let each other down, and they will have misaligned expectations. Your role is to help your team navigate around these distractions and develop their ability to live the values and fix problems.

Purpose gives a team meaning

A great team is like a problem-solving engine fueled by purpose. When a team understands its purpose people show up inspired and motivated.

Good people want to make a difference, they want their work to matter, and they want to know their work is about creating something they can proud to share with their friends and family.

Great leaders know how to set this galvanising idea. They know it needs to be simple and lasting. When coupled to the values its forms the underlying philosophy of the team.

Ideas such as:

we exist to transform how finance enables growth

we drive customer happiness

we create raving fans

we are here to build a pipeline of opportunities

we make the world a safer place

we put humanity back in air travel

we enable managers to bring leadership to life

How you frame the reason your team exists is a source of motivation and opens the door to innovation lead by your team members and not you. Agreeing on the purpose of your team is the single most important strategy you can deploy to allow you to scale your influence throughout the business.

Time

I have never met a highly successful leader that complained that they didn’t have enough time to do this work.

Consider how you can structure time to allow your team members to learn about each other, create a safe space and discover their purpose. A few hours a week is an investment that will repay you in time, innovation and success.

If you would like a copy of an outline plan to build on, comment on this post and send me a request.

what’s your question?

​Chris is a renowned authority on sales and marketing. He has influenced 1000’s of sales professionals to change how they approach customers and build sustainable careers by embracing technology. ​

DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS
Chris leads the team at MGL that is committed to enabling sales success for all our clients. His team helps our sales professionals integrate traditional sales process and digital media to save time, money and improve effectiveness. His success has been measured in the millions of dollar in additional revenues experienced by clients across the US and Europe. ​

CONSULTING
Chris provides clients advice on how to maximize digital content and fully integrate client engagement processes with all sales and marketing activities.

​Tim is an award-winning writer and speaker on leadership and coaching for performance. He has delivered over 1500 workshops in 42 countries to over 10,000 leaders.​

DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS​
Tim has led teams that have built development programs for companies in 53 countries and 24 languages. Our Design thinking team utilizes empathy and experimentation to arrive at innovative solutions.​By using design thinking, we help our clients make decisions based on what managers want instead of relying only on historical data or making risky bets based on instinct instead of evidence.​

FACILITATION
Tim is a powerful facilitator who has helped hundreds of management teams solve problems and build shared vision of the future. Tim often facilitates discussion by designing bespoke workshops at Executive-management and Board-level.

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Strategic Business Advisor, Mentor, Chairman, NED
Mark is a lawyer by training, and former Chairman and CEO of a large manufacturing company. Mark has over 30-years-experience of international business development, project management, sales and marketing and customer service.

​Kostas is a Lecturer in Developmental Psychopathology at QUB and an Associate Professor in Personality Psychology at Tomsk State University in Russia. Kostas is researching the links between Mental Toughness and leadership success. He is a Director of the InteRRaCt Lab and an International Associate Member of InLab at Goldsmiths, and the Russian-British Behavioural Genetics Laboratory at the Psychological Institute of the Russian Academy of Education.

​Lyle is an award-winning businessperson; his early career was in the banking industry in South Africa. His work has taken him to 16 different countries and allowed him to work with aspiring leaders across a wide range of sectors. Lyle is a member of the International Coaching Federation.

He is also a highly active member of the Princes’ Trust where he dedicates much of his free time to causes that support young people and entrepreneurship.

Strategic Business Advisor, Mentor, Chairman, NED
John was the Group Chief Risk Officer and an Executive Vice President at Fitch Group, Inc. with over 25 years experience in capital markets, general management, and macro research.